Here we go again

Of course I can't let this one sneak by: Cherie Blair, wife of the former British prime minister, has declared that women who stay at home full-time with their kids aren't setting a good example for their children. Sigh. Very exciting to know that I am a "yummy mummy." Seriously, wasn't the point of feminism to give women CHOICES, not to guilt women into fulfilling someone else's life ambitions? I can assure you children raised by a full-time at-home mom have NO problem with a "sense of independence." Let's call it what it is folks: if you aren't earning money, society calls you worthless. Please, someone look me in the eye and tell me that I'm wasting my time and education. Otherwise can we stop demanding that the only women who dare call themselves feminists or even good mothers are those who refuse a life that looks remotely like the life of a woman from our grandmothers' era. 

Remembering Grandpa

Grandpa and "Christy" 

This past Sunday marked 10 years since my grandfather, Ernest Steinhorst, passed away. I still have to remind myself sometimes that he and Grandma aren't in their old house on Fifth Street, which makes me so very sad. There's nothing I would enjoy more than introducing them to my kids. I know Grandma would fill them full of cookies. I can picture Grandpa letting them sit on his lap while they look at books. I think they would have been tickled to fill their tiny house with yet more great-grandkids.

Grandma visiting with Callie and Molly, 2004

By some standards, my grandparents may not be memorable. They were farm folks of limited formal education. They were soft-spoken people who lived simply. I can tell you, though, that it's because of them, that I am who I am and I do what I do. Every year our family would file into "their" church pew on Christmas Eve. My humble grandparents would beam with joy to have everyone home for Christmas. I have never seen anyone of business or wealth or status who was as happy as they were just to be with family. Because of them, I can be home with my children every day knowing that I don't have to do anything else with my life for it to be a success. From Ernest and Dorothy Steinhorst I learned that a life well lived is one in which you work hard, put your faith in God and cherish family. Anything beyond that is just icing on the cake.

Grandma and Grandpa, I love you and miss you.